Honor Harrington by David Weber
The “Honor Harrington” series is written by author David Weber, and is from the military science fiction genre. The series began publication in the year 1992, when “On Basilisk Station” was released. The series has two prequel series, and two sub-series.

David Weber only created a female character for the series because that is how she came to him. It was not a way to strike a chord with women readers or to make him a lot of money. That is just how Honor showed herself at first to David. He had the name Honor before the last name. He knew that if the Honor novels were a success, she would get compared to Horatio Hornblower and picked her name so that both Horatio and Honor had the same initials.

The series is about Honor Harrington, who is a military heroine before becoming an influential politician during a period of extreme interstellar tension and change. She is an officer with the Royal Manticorn Navy, which is Star Kingdom of Manticore’s space navy. She has expertise in tactical command, and often overcomes significant odds, as well as occasional major loss of life. This makes her get many promotions and awards. She is even a martial artist of note, earning an eighth level black belt at one point. Her birthday is October 1, 3962 AD (or 1859 PD).

Honor is six feet two inches tall, and is a source of a lot of humor found in the series. Especially when she is compared to her tiny mom, Allison Harrington. She has brown, slightly almond shaped eyes, and a cool soprano voice. Many times, she is seen drinking down “Old Tilman” beer right from a bottle. She views hot cocoa to be far superior to coffee, which she loathes.

Most of the novels and stories cover the events that occur between 4000 and 4022 AD with Post-Diaspora starting with a moving throughout the stars from Sol, our sun in the year 2103 AD. The main series of novels is set for the most part on a time line that starts forty years after Honor was born. Some of the stories explore the events of her earlier career.

The books are modeled on CS Forester’s “Horatio Hornblower” series and its main character, who is a combination of Admiral Lord Nelson and Thomas Cochrane. Weber had originally planned to kill off Harrington in the fifth book, but it was changed later on to parallel Nelson by making her die at the height of her career in the Battle of Manticore, a climatic fight in 4020 AD or 1920 PD. He then wanted her kids to continue the series as the heroes.

“On Basilisk Station” is the first novel in the “Honor Harrington” series, which was released in the year 1992. Honor Harrington is in trouble. She made him look like a fool, and is exiled to Basilisk in disgrace for it and set up to be ruined by a superior officer that hates her. She is blamed by her demoralized crew for their ship being given a humiliating posting to the out of the way picket station.

The aborigines on the only habitable planet in the system have been smoking some homicide inducing hallucinogens. Parliament is unsure about keeping the place: the major local industry on the planet is smuggling, and the merchant cartels want her head. The so-called “Republic” of Haven, the star conqueror is up to something, and Honor only has one over-age light cruiser with armament that will not work to police all of the star system.

The people that are out to get her have made one huge mistake. They have made her mad!

“The Honor of the Queen” is the second novel in the “Honor Harrington” series, which was released in the year 1993. It is tough to give peace a chance when the other side views war as something that comes before a conquest. Which is why Manticore needs to get some allies against Haven, and planet Grayson looks to make for a good ally. The Foreign Office failed to notice a cultural difference when they had Honor Harrington go and carry the flag.

“The Short Victorious War” is the third novel in the “Honor Harrington” series, which was released in the year 1994. The Proles have started revolting. The ruling families of the People’s Republic of Haven find themselves in trouble, the Proles are restless, and civil war is close to happening.

The ruling class knows what it will take to keep power. One more short and victorious war that will unite all of the people and fill up the treasury once again. It is card they have played quite a few times in the last fifty years and they have always been successful with it. All that stands in the way is the Star Kingdom of Manticore and its weakening allies.

This time the Peeps are up against something different. This time, they will have to take on Captain Honor Harrington along with a Royal Manticoran Navy that is ready to give them a war that will be far from short. Not to mention anything but victorious.

“Field of Dishonor” is the fourth novel in the “Honor Harrington” series, which was released in the year 1994. The sneak attack the People’s Republic of Haven tried on the Kingdom of Manticore just failed. The Peeps are now in disarray, with their leaders fighting for power in a bloody revolution, and the Royal Manticoran Navy is victorious.

Manticore’s got domestic problems all its own, with success sometimes being more treacherous than losing for Honor Harrington. She is now trapped in the middle of a political crisis that she never wanted, and is betrayed by a vicious and old enemy she believed was put away forever. Honor finds herself alone at the moment.

She has to fight to get justice on a field of battle she never trained for in a private war where there are only two choices. Death or “victory” that only ends in dishonor and losing everything that she loves.

Harrington, the eponymous heroine of the novel is a Naval officer in the Royal Manticoran Navy, which is a space navy placed in the Kingdom of Manticore. Honor Harrington is a fearless commander, genius in tackling situations and often overcomes various odds in her professional life. In the first book of the series “On Basilisk Station”, she is introduced as newly promoted Captain of the Queen’s Royal Manticoran Navy. Her first assignment would be in Basilisk Station, which would involve checking cargoes for contraband. Things won’t be the same for long in the location, Another planet Unbeknownst to Manticore, the Republic of Haven tries to invade Manticore, The planet is trying to conquer wealthy planets to better its Economy, and it tries to invade into Manticore through the wormhole junction terminus at Basilisk Station and how Honor Harrington and her crew discovers the plan and saves Manticore is the plot of the novel. In the end Honor Harrington and her crew uncover the invasion plan of Haven and stop it. The entire novel series deals with various military tactics, hyperspace, Weaponry, Calculation of Accelaration rates, technical challenges, etc.

All over the series Honor Harrington is an admirable Heroine, she is smart, intellectual, loyal, courageous, determinant, proud, honest and extremely reliable. In the next book “The Honour of the Queen”, this is the sequel of the first book “On Basilisk Station”, After her deputation and her great work at Basilisk Station, she is given the next challenge of gaining a foothold in another planet, she and her team goes to another planet called Grayson to sign a treaty. But the Grayson planet people are a bit backward in their thoughts and they do not accept a woman being in command, they consider women as property of men. Grayson planet, is also in danger, as another planet called Masada in ally with the weapon supplier Haven, tries to erase Grayson from the star fleet. Honor Harrington has to save Grayson and her own Planet Manticore, despite the rejection she faces and the affront of powers she encounters in Grayson.

The next in the series is “The Short Victorious War”, In this book the people in the till then enemy planet, The People’s Republic of Haven are in Trouble. Meanwhile Honor Harrington recovers from the injuries she sustained in the battle happened in the last novel to protect Grayson. In this book, the People’s Republic of Haven tries to initiate a war with Manticore to fill its treasury which is empty, and unite the unrest people in the planet. In this book, the rise of Honor Harrington is being criticized by a few and appreciated by many.

In the first half, Honor Harrington’s rebuilding is briefed. And she is rewarded as Dame Honor in this Book. In the second half of the book, three battles takes place, only one with Honor Harrington in it is explained briefly and we get to know the real detail on it. The book is filled with dictatorial politics, stereotypical, power politics, etc.

After reading the next book, “ Field of Dishonour”, we would realise it is a prelude the previous book The Short Victorious War, In this book she is the center of the plot. And like the previous books, this book doesn’t focus on Militaristic strategies, instead It focuses on character development of Honor Harrington. In the first half, the surprise attack of the enemy planet, Republic of Haven on Manticore is failed, As usual Manticorian Navy wins again raising the disarray among leaders, she gets trapped in the political crisis, get betrayed by an enemy and she stands alone. She must fight a war which has two ends, one is death, another victory accompanied by dishonour and loss of all she has loved.

“Flag in Exile” is the fifth book in the series and here the brave heroine Honor Harrington is in dismise, she is hurt by the disgrace of political enemies, saddened by the murder of her lover and loses confidence in her. She is retreated to Grayson planet, where she takes up the role of Steadholder, and in the process heals from her bitter past. And again People’s Republic of Haven rise from defeat to fight with Grayson, And the newly formed Navy of Grayson needs the expertise of Honor Harrington and calls upon her, and she doesn’t refuse, and again takes up the challenges she is longer confident of handling. The sixth in the series ”Honour among Enemies”, revelas the intensity of the war between Haven and Manticore, and Honor Harrington is called again to join the Manticore Navy, she is not able to turn down the call and she has to now fight the enemies in the enemy ship and her own ship.

“In the Enemy Hands” is the seventh book of the series, where Honor Harrington is promoted as Commodore, and now she is the commander of a group of ships. And in a worse situation, Honor Harrington and her crew get in custody, and she is sentenced to death for a past mistake. Next in the series is “Echoes of Honour”, shows how Honor and her crew escaped from custody and gets stranded without food for months, and this book elaborates the escape plan of Honor and how her family and friends believe that she and her crew are long dead. The ninth book in the series is “Ashes of Victory”, in this book she returns to her home. She recovers from injuries and shapes the military of Manticore. The tenth book is “War of Honour”, this book doesn’t revolve around honor, again a war building up between Manicore and Haven is given in detail.

The next in the series is “At all Costs”, the eleventh book in the series, deals with the drama in Honor Harrington’s life, not professional life, but her personal life. The next book is “Mission of Honour”, where Honor Harrington’s personal life is explained, how she enjoys her days with loved ones, and how galaxies around her has other plans, which makes her life unrest. The last in the series is “A Rising thunder”, and not much happens in this book, people just talk about then events happened before in the previous books in this book.

And I guess you would get a whole idea of the David Weber’s Honor Harrington series by reading this article.

All Gabriel Allon fans will be eagerly anticipating this one - your favourite spy is back in The New Girl, coming to bookshelves in mid-July. In this one, a girl is kidnapped from an exclusive private school in Switzerland and Gabriel Allon is brought on board to find her. More Details.

Recommendations

Every 2 weeks we send out an e-mail with 6-8 Book Recommendations. We'll base this on various factors for example "If you like Jack Reacher..." or "If you like short stories in the horror genre". Insert your e-mail below to start getting these recommendations.

MISSING A BOOK?

I do my best to make sure the book lists are complete and current, but due to human or machine error while attempting to keep 3000+ authors up to date, the occasional book can be missed or will be listed under an alternate title. If you see one missing just send me an e-mail below. Thanks!

Author / Series

Book(s)

Featured Series

if you are a fan of Jack Reacher you need to read the "Peter Ash" series by Nick Petrie. Endorsed by Lee Child himself, this is a fantastic book series and is the best recommendation I can give for any fans of Reacher. More details.

Featured Author

If you’re a fan of standalone thrillers then be sure to read any of the standalones by Brad Parks. The guy is a master! I’ve read over 50 different authors of standalone thrillers in the last year and no-one stands out like Brad. More Details.

Did You Know…

When not writing, Brad Taylor serves as a security consultant on asymmetric threats for various agencies.